TCR Australia, along with the Toyota 86s and Formula Open were part of the Shannons SpeedSeries Race Queensland at QR.
In the Wall Racing Honda Civic R FL5, D’Alberto covered off pole position from the start. Cameron (Garry Rogers Motorsport Peugeot 308 TCR) was lightning quick off the line to snare second before Turn 1 and stayed with the leader throughout.
“I had to work pretty hard for this. Aaron was really quick, particularly at Turn 2,” said D’Alberto.
“Everyone knows the story; we have been working for this since Tasmania.”
There was only 0.8s between them at the flag while 4.0s away Zac Soutar (Tufflift Racing Audi RS3 LMS TCR) held off Tom Oliphant (HMO Customer Racing Hyundai i30N TCR) to take third.
While D’Alberto was on pole position for the fifth consecutive time, he wasn’t the fastest qualifier. That honour went to Oliphant, but the Brit had a five-car grid penalty because of an engine change after the previous round.
Soutar was third on the grid with Cameron alongside and ahead of Oliphant and Dylan O’Keeffe. The latter’s race ended where he started when the Link & Co CO 03 TCR didn’t budge. It was towed away before the field completed the first lap.
Brad Harris (Honda) kept ahead of Josh Buchan (Hyundai Elantra N) and Ben Bargwanna (Peugeot) for fifth. Jordan Cox (Peugeot) overcame his engine change grid penalty to finish eighth in front of Will Harris (Honda), Ryan Casha (Peugeot), Glenn Nirwan and Ben Stewart, both in Audis.
TGRA SCHOLARSHIP SERIES
The opening race of the Toyota GAZOO Racing Australia Scholarship Series was won by Ben Stewart. The New Zealander let from the outset, hotly pursued by Max Geoghegan. The latter looked like he would nab second when he slipped down the inside of Stewart at Turn 3 only to be denied by the Safety Car.
Stewart resumed in the lead and went onto win. Geoghegan would slip to fourth before he had a mini revival to take third behind Alice Buckley. Hayden Hume was next but fourth went to Jack Wood after Hume was penalised 5.0s and placed behind Ryan Tomsett, Ben Gomersall and Lachlan Evennett.
GITI TYRES AUSTRALIAN FORMULA OPEN
Tim Macrow Racing’s Ryan MacMillan and Miles Bromley in their Dallara F308/11s finished first and second in the first of three races. Bromley had pole position, but it was MacMillan from the outside of the front row who had the better grip and took the race lead.
Gilmour Racing’s Kyle Evans (f308/11) maintained third throughout while his teammate Chris Gilmour (F307) was fourth early before passed by Beau Russell (F308/11) after three laps. Behind the FO1 class, was George Kantzios (FO2 F304) while F04 was taken out by Isaac McNeill (Tatuus T014) over Mygale pilots Jayden Hamilton and Ryan Sorensen.
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